Bail Out Kit For Backcountry Adventures

This is a piece of gear I wear often as it contains items I use very often or need close at hand or for surviving an adverse situation. The chest rig is made by Hill People Gear and is the Original Kit Bag V2. I bought it at a reduced price off of a forum, same as the ESEE-4 and other gear I have. Why pay full price when you can save your money? Besides, I don't rate free gear from sponsors so I need to be pretty frugal when obtaining high-end gear.


The Kit Bag has a nice harness arrangement that allows me to wear it while driving my truck or wearing a backpack. Super easy to put on and take off. 

I jokingly call it my "reserve chute" because it is packed with highly reliable gear to be immediately available or utilized when an unexpected situation  arises. Mostly I just want a multitool, knife or navigation tools always handy and don't want to be forgetting them in some backpack or back seat of the 4Runner. Depending on where I go I may add or subtract some items to match the area I am in.

On the exterior I usually have a pair of light gloves and always a ESEE-4 knife.

The knife is attached using ESEE's plastic sheath and MOLLE strap adaptor at the bottom of the kit bag where it is easy to grab the handle.

The zippered section at the front has firemaking supplies - matches, ferro rod, Zippo lighter and a mini Fresnel lens (green card sized item) as well as navigation items, spare knife, signaling mirror and whistle.

The middle compartment has spare batteries, headlamp, flashlight, pepper spray, water purification tablets, Kevlar cord, multitool, spare water filter prefilter and a full strength carabiner.

The compartment closest to my chest has Nikon 7x20 binoculars (great for route finding), GPS, SPOT satellite beacon and water filter.

Product Links:

Hill People Gear Original Kit Bag V2

ESEE-4 Knife